Geniza Lab

Letter of petition from a man to a potential benefactor: 'I hereby inform you that I have been in good health, "concealed" among the people (mastūr bayn al-nās). Then when my hand became paralyzed (infalajat), I was left without a means of making a livin[g].' When capitation tax payment came he had to go into hiding in his house, and so he asks for assistance." Cohen, Poverty and Charity, 42-43. See also Goitein's note card. The writer has been hiding in the house for 55 days. Only Abu l-Fakhr the son of the judge and Ibn [...] al-Amshati have come to his aid, each one giving him 5 dirhems. He bribed the capitation tax collectors with 5 dirhems and already spent the other 5. He needs food. ASE.

Fatimid-era petition. From Muʿammar [...] al-Tūnisī. In Arabic script. He is in trouble on account of the capitation tax and says he does not have enough money to buy food and that he wishes to return home to his frail mother. Begins "uʿlimu/uʿallimu," perhaps a clue of lower status or earlier period.

Letter addressed to ʿEli the Parnas. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender petitions on behalf of a divorcee who came to him "complaining and crying" that her ex-husband, Avraham b. Khalaf, had not paid her and her nursing infant alimony for eight consecutive months. The woman had previously gone to the Parnas for help ("threw herself down in the house of the Parnas"), evidently to no avail. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.) Join: Oded Zinger. ASE

Verso: Letter from Daʾūd (probably muqaddam of Bilbays) to the judge Eliyyahu b. Zekharya. This is a petition in which the sender expresses his alarm over the fact that a responsum from the Nagid Avraham Maimonides with instructions had been sent some time before this present letter to Eliyyahu, who had not acted upon it yet. On recto, there is also an Arabic document (see separate record). (Information from CUDL and Mediterranean Society, II, p. 338.) Join: MAF and AA.

Letter of request, in which a silk-weaver who owed money to his employer, but wanted to quit his job, asks the Nagid to instruct his judges to permit him to pay in installments. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 35, 36)

Petition from Cairo to Gaon Sar Shalom (ca. 1177-1195) in which the wife of Abu al-Ḥasan, the miller, requests that the latter not be permitted to tell his wife to go and do embroidery in other people's houses and bring him her earned money, instead she should be permitted to retain her wages if she chose to work. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 133)

Petition to Avraham al-Nafis from Bu al-Faraj. (F. Niessen and A. Shivtiel, ed., Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic Manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collections, 602) EMS

Petition from Ḍiyāʾ bt. Yūsuf al-Qamrī (or possibly "bayt Yūsuf al-Qamrī" = his wife) to her relative Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAllūn al-Firnās (=ʿEli b. Yaḥyā ha-Kohen). In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. Dating: 1094–1111. She is in distress over her son’s imprisonment and asks the addressee to appeal to Sar ha-Sarim (=Mevorakh b. Saʿadya) for aid. She states that she must pay the jailer several dirhams every day, which she cannot afford, and suggests that Mevorakh will be able to secure the release of her son simply by writing a note (ruqʿa) to the Alexandrian qāḍī. (Mark Cohen, Jewish Self-government in Medieval Egypt, Princeton University Press, 1980, 113, 260, 261; S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:373) EMS

Letter/petition from Yehuda(?), probably in Cairo, to an important person called Sayyidnā, probably in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Rudimentary orthography. Dating: Probably late 12th or early 13th century. He first makes an excuse about why he could not come in person. Then he asks the addressee to obtain for him a copy of Tadhkirat al-Kaḥḥālīn ("The Oculists' Handbook") in the best handwriting possible. "For this is a khilʿa (robe of honor?) from Sayydinā"—i.e., receiving the book would be like receiving a robe of honor? He explains that the book cannot be found in Cairo. The addressee should spare no expense; the sender will reimburse him. ASE

Letter/petition to a certain Net[an'el]. Written in Judaeo-Arabic. Little of the content remains; mentions household items (ḥawā'ij al-bayt) and the writer's shame.

Letter conveying instructions from the Nagid on behalf of a female orphan, evidently the response to a petition. She has lost most of her father's estate through expenses. She should be placed 'under the care' of Abū l-Faraj b. Abū l-Ḥasan al-Levi. Everything that has been brought to Fustat should be returned. On verso there is an inventory of goods (left to her? for her trousseau?). (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Letter/petition from an unknown writer to the Head of the Jews. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer complains about ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (probably his son) and his mistreatment of a woman in the house (the son's wife?) for whom he refuses to provide. When the writer confronts him, he shouts at him while chewing his mastic, "My mother left, and you stayed in my face." He refuses to sit like a normal person. The addressee is asked to arbitrate between them, for the wretched petitioners (al-suqamā') are perishing. The letter is written on a reused page of accounts in Judaeo-Arabic, of which a few lines are visible at the bottom of verso. ASE.

Letter "to the Sulṭān regarding. . ." written in calligraphic and vocalized Judaeo-Arabic. The header is too faded to be easily read from the microfilm. The text is filled with expressions glorifying the sultan.